Thursday, April 27, 2017

What are the two similes Bradbury uses to describe Peter's and Wendy's physical traits? What is ironic about these choices of similes?

Here are the two similes that Ray Bradbury uses to describe Peter and Wendy:

  1. They have "cheeks like peppermint candy."

  2. They also have "eyes like bright blue agate marbles."

What is ironic about these similes is that they are in sharp contrast to the reality of the children's natures. These descriptions connote innocent cherub-like children with wide eyes and rosy cheeks--the children out of fairy tales, as their names also suggest. But, in the story the natures of Peter and Wendy are much more ominous than they are innocent. For, when George tells the children that he and Lydia are considering shutting off the nursery, Peter threatens, "I don't think you'd better consider it any more, Father." And, when George replies angrily, "I won't have any threats from my son," Peter simply says, "Very well," and he walks away to the nursery.


Further, when David McClean, a friend and psychologist, and George throw the switch in the fuse box that connects to the nursery, the two children become hysterical: "They screamed and pranced and threw things." Then they fling themselves onto the couch, crying. When their mother hears them, she begs George to let the children back in because she succumbs to their supplication, "...just one moment, just another moment of nursery." 


As George and Lydia descend the stairs after returning to their bedroom, they hear the children calling them, so they rush into the nursery, but the veldt is empty except for lions, who watch them. They call to Peter and Wendy the only sound is that of a door slam. George realizes that they are locked in and calls to the children; then he hears Peter's voice: "Don't let them switch off the nursery and the house." He and his wife beat at the door, insisting that it is time for them to go. Instead, they hear the lions; they scream, and they recognize those screams they had heard earlier. Their boy and girl--sinister children that they really are--have no rosy cheeks or eyes clear like blue marbles.

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